Spellbound
by Serpent In Red
Summary: If Mars was anything like her past life, Jin had his work cut out for him. (Companion piece to "Mesmerized". One-shots in that AU that focuses more on Rei and Jadeite will be posted here.)


**Prompt**: #95. Fate  
**Betas**: None. You have been warned.**  
Disclaimer**: I don't own these characters, nor am I making any money from them. I merely borrow them from time to time.  
**Rating**: G  
**Notes**: Cross-posted on my LJ.  
**Summary**: Mars … Hino Rei … He still remembered her civilian name. How he wished to utter it out loud, call out to her, and hear her say his name.

~-0-~

**Fate**

Jin Sakamoto watched from the corner of the street with his eyebrow raised. It seemed like their leader was becoming … careless. Well, this provided a wonderful get-out-of-jail-free card for him, so he wasn't about to complain.

Slipping out his cellphone, Jin took pictures of Kiyoshi and Venus (who was called "Minako", according to his dear leader) as he trailed behind them. He kept at a safe distance and ducked out of sight whenever he was in danger of getting caught. However, his job was a lot easier than he had expected it to be; apparently, Kiyoshi was too absorbed in his conversation with the lovely princess of Venus.

A wry smile appeared on Jin's face, and he couldn't help but feel bitter. It was as if the gods of good fortune constantly favored Kiyoshi, which Jin found completely unfair. Not only was Kiyoshi much closer to his Senshi than he had any right to be, the princess of Venus was never known to be a man-hater ever since the days when the Golden Kingdom was still around.

If Mars was anything like her past life, Jin had his work cut out for him.

The trip to the supermarket was much more boring than Jin had expected it to be. Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how he looked at it), Kiyoshi didn't do much with Venus other than loop their arms together. He supposed that it was incriminating enough for Kiyoshi to be next to Venus, but Jin was hoping for something … higher in level so that he could use it as leverage.

It was fighting dirty, but one didn't become brothers-in-arms with Zoisite for so long without learning as much.

"Minako-chan!"

Jin looked towards the source of noise and wasn't overly surprised to find the Moon Princess. What nearly made him drop his cellphone was the raven-haired beauty standing behind her.

Jin couldn't even be bothered to listen in on what the princess and her head guardian were talking about. He couldn't believe that he would see his Mars here without even planning to do so ahead of time.

Suddenly, Mars looked in the general direction Jin was standing in. During that split second when his gaze locked with beautiful amethyst eyes, millions of ideas and scenarios went through his head. He could walk up to her with a sunny smile, asking if she was the miko at Hikawa Shrine and starting a conversation from there, all the while shooting Kiyoshi smug smiles. He could pretend that he was being attacked by an enemy (hey, there was no dark energy in the supermarket, but that was the whole point about pretending), so that she could save him from the potential danger. Then, as a "victim" of an attack, he could somehow weasel his way into a friendship with her. All of the scenes played out in his mind quickly and perfectly.

It was just too hard to choose the perfect one, and so he settled for the logical one.

He rounded the corner and hid behind the rack, trying his hardest not to turn tail and run. Since when did he become a chicken? No matter; he didn't know how to face his Martian beauty yet. He didn't know what to say.

His grip around his phone tightened, and a frown appeared on his face.

He'd decided that it was all Kiyoshi's fault. After all, if he hadn't gone out with Venus, Jin would've had enough time to at least think of something to say to Mars.

Mars … Hino Rei …

He still remembered her civilian name. How he wished to utter it out loud, call out to her, and hear her say his name.

He took another peek at her and found that her attention was no longer on him. Instead, she was talking to the soon-to-be-dead leader of the Shitennou. Gritting his teeth, Jin started taking more photos of the whole conversation, not caring if it seemed like he was some kind of stalker.

By the time Kiyoshi and the Senshi parted ways, Jin had a grin on his face and slowly walked out of the supermarket.

Next time, he would have a plan ready to talk to Rei, and with the blackmail photos in his possession, Kiyoshi would have no way to stop him.

Life was good.

~-0-~


End file.
